"Ninety-eight years ago, the long history of the Armenian people intersected with the terrible path of human affliction.

There had been tragedies for us prior to that time. But the Genocide of 1915 has come to embody the suffering of our people like no other event in our history. Indeed, it stands with a very small host of other inhuman episodes, as an embodiment of the affliction of mortal man in general.

It’s fitting therefore that Armenians should mark April 24 by gathering in our sanctuaries—beneath the cross of Christ. For the cross illuminates the meaning of the Genocide. On the one hand, it is the universal symbol of human suffering—a reminder that the Son of God was placed on a cross to die.

But the cross is not simply a symbol of suffering. Christ did die on the cross. But more: he is risen. And so the cross must be understood in light of the resurrection of Christ: as a symbol of suffering, surely; but also as a sign of victory over suffering—a victory promised by God to His true and faithful servants.

In this way, too, the cross represents the Armenian martyrs of 1915. Not because our martyrs themselves were resurrected—they remain dead, and we pray for the peace of their souls. But we must remember that our persecutors contem­plated the destruction of a whole nation, and they came close to succeeding. Our memorials to the Genocide are one way of remembering that every Armenian living in the world today has passed very close to death, through the experience of a parent or grandparent; through the larger experience of our people."

"Ninety-eight years ago, the long history of the Armenian people intersected with the terrible path of human affliction.

There had been tragedies for us prior to that time. But the Genocide of 1915 has come to embody the suffering of our people like no other event in our history. Indeed, it stands with a very small host of other inhuman episodes, as an embodiment of the affliction of mortal man in general.

It’s fitting therefore that Armenians should mark April 24 by gathering in our sanctuaries—beneath the cross of Christ. For the cross illuminates the meaning of the Genocide. On the one hand, it is the universal symbol of human suffering—a reminder that the Son of God was placed on a cross to die.

But the cross is not simply a symbol of suffering. Christ did die on the cross. But more: he is risen. And so the cross must be understood in light of the resurrection of Christ: as a symbol of suffering, surely; but also as a sign of victory over suffering—a victory promised by God to His true and faithful servants.

In this way, too, the cross represents the Armenian martyrs of 1915. Not because our martyrs themselves were resurrected—they remain dead, and we pray for the peace of their souls. But we must remember that our persecutors contem­plated the destruction of a whole nation, and they came close to succeeding. Our memorials to the Genocide are one way of remembering that every Armenian living in the world today has passed very close to death, through the experience of a parent or grandparent; through the larger experience of our people."